St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-22
FORBIDDEN HONEY.
NEARLY A MILLION DOLLARS IN
NINETEEN YEARS.
A Sermon Preached by Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage in Answer to Some Misrepre-
sensations About the Brooklyn Taberna-
cle-Lessons Drawn from the Bee.

cents have been paid In cash down III
this church for religious uses and Chris
tian work during the nineteen years OF
nv ministry" said the Rev. Z. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., in answer to the misrep-
reservations that have been going through
some of the religious papers depreciating
the work of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
After giving out the hymn
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
DR.. Talmage preached sermon, the sub
iect of which was, "Forbidden Honey
the text being Samuel xiv, V. 43: II did
but taste little honey with the end of
the rod that was in my hand, and, 10, |
must die" DR.. Talmage said:
The honey bee is most ingenious
architect, Christopher Wren among
insects, a geometer drawing hexagons
and pentagons, freebooter robbing the
fields of pollen and aroma, wondrous
creature of God whose biography,
written by Huber and Swammerdam, is
an enchantment for any lover of nature.
fIISll CClCUldbCb lIiS UCC Ill 1lo lab4S VI
Aristacus, and Moses, and Samuel and
David, and Solomon, and jeremiah, and
Ezekiel, and St. John used the delicacies
of the bee-manufacture as Bible SYM
boil A miracle of formation is the bee;
five eyes, two tongues, the outer having
sheath of protection, hairs on all sides of
it's tiny body to brush up the particles of
flowers, its flight so straight that all the
world knows of the bee line The honey
comb is palace such as no one but God
could plan, and the honey bee construct;
its cells sometimes a dormitory, and
som etimes a storehouse, and sometimes
a cemetery. These winged toilers first
make eight strips of wax, and by their
antenn9, which are to them hammer,
and chisel, and square, and plumb-line,
fashion them for use. Two and two,
these workers shape the wall. If
an accident happen they put up but
tresses or extra beams to remedy
the damage. When about the year 1916
an insect, before unknown, in the night
time attacked the bee-hives all over
Europe, and the men who owned them
were in vain trying to plan something to
keep out the invader that was the terror
of the bee-hives, it was found that every
where the bees had arranged for their
own protection, and built before their
honeycombs an especial wall of wax
with portfolio through which the bees
might 60 to and fro, but not large
enough to admit the winged combatant,
called the Sphinx Atropos.
boy you know that the swarming of the
bees is divinely directed? The mother
bee starts for a new home, and because
of this the other bees of the hive get into
an excitement which raises the heat of
the hive some four degrees, and they
must die unless they leave their heated
apartments, and they follow the mother
bee and alight on the branch of
tree, and cling to each other
and hold on until a committee of
two or three have explored the region
and found the hollow of tree or rock
not far off from stream of water, and
they here set up new colony, and ply
their aromatic industries, and give them
selves to the manufacture of the saccha-
rine edible. But who can tell the chem
istry of that mixture of sweetness, part
of it the very life of the bee and part of
it the life of the fields?
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods of Beth aven during
the time of Saul and Jonathan. Their
army was in pursuit of an enemy that
by Gods command must be extermi-
mated. The soldiery were positively for
hidden to stop to eat anything until the
work was done. If they disobeyed they
were accursed. Coming through the
woods they found place where the
bees had been busy, great honey manu-
factory. Honey gathered in the hollow of
the trees untilit had overfowed upon the
ground in great profusion of sweetness.
All the army obeyed orders and touched
it not save Jonathan, and he not knowing
the military order about abstinence
dipped the end of stick he had in his
hand into the candied liquid and as, yell
low, and brown, and tempting, it glowed
on the end of the stick he put it to his
mouth and ate the honey. Judgment fell
upon him, and but for special interven-
ton he would have been slain. In my
text Jonathan announces his awful mis-
take. II did but taste little honey with
the end of the rod that was in my hand,
and, 10, must die" Alas, what multi
tudes of people in all ages have been
damaged by forbidden honey, by which
| mean temptation, delicious and attract
i've, but damaging and destructive!
Literature. fascinating but beautiful
comes in this category. Where one
good. honest, healthful book is read now
there are one hundred made up of
rhetorical trash consumed with avidity.
w hen the boy On the cars comes through
with pile of publications, look over
the titles and notice that nine out
OF ten of the books are depicting and
injurious. All the way from New
York to Chicago or New Orleans
notice that Objectionable books domi-
nate. Taste for pure literature is
by this scum of the publishing
house. Every book in which sin triumphs
over virtue, or in which a glamour is
thrown over dissipation, or which leaves
you at its last line with less respect for
The marriage institution and less abb
borrence for the paramount, is a depression
Oh your own moral character The
book binding may be attractive, and
The plot dramatic, and startling, and the
style OF writing sweet as the honey that
Jonathan dipped up with his rod, but
your best interests forbid it, your moral
safety forbids it, your God forbids it, and
one taste OF it may lead to such bad re-
suits that you may have to say at the
close OF the experiment or at the close of
mislmproved'life time: II did but taste
little honey with the rod that was in my
hand, and, To- | must die y